2 Plus 16

Old No. 2 must be obligated to spout these online commentaries, because his latest doesn’t tell you much of what you don’t already know.

Helio's best competition right now is his Marlboro Team Penske teammate, Sam Hornish Jr., as well as Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon. Hornish, Dixon, Wheldon, and Andretti Green Racing drivers Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti are all in the same group as far as the way they are running on the track; but Castroneves just seems to be a notch above all of them right now.

Spiderman is a nose (maybe Tony Kanaan’s) away from winning all three races this season and he’s “just a notch above“ the other drivers? I guess everyone is entitled to their opinions, but right now Mr. “drive it like I stole it” has led OVER HALF (266 of 500) of all laps in the series. C’mon, that’s at least two notches, right?

I’ll spare you a breakdown of the whole piece, but here’s the money quote.

One driver to watch next month is Danica Patrick…I'm expecting big things out of her next month.

Yes, Old No. 2 has caught Danica! Fever or Mania or whatever it’s called. Either that or this is a puff piece designed to drum up support among passive viewers by mentioning the only driver they know. Whatever the reason, allow me to take Rusty’s premise of “Motegi is the best indicator for how next month's Indianapolis 500 could turn out” and compare teammates:

Driver A starts 14th at Motegi, finishes 8th, best finish at Indy was 4th.

Driver B starts 18th at Motegi, finishes 5th, best finish at Indy was 1st.

I’m no former NASCAR driver, but if I had to put money on one of those two I’d go with B as in Buddy Rice. You would think a paid analyst would point out things like “Patrick has raced well but her teammate was better” instead of this “Let’s all love Danica” drivel. Sadly, you would be wrong.